'Here is my secret. It's very simple: One sees well only with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes'.

Back in 1943, Katherine Woods translated it like this:

'And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye'.

To see how this critical message is translated in 5 English translations, 53 Chinese translations (not including adaptations), 5 Vietnamese translations, 15 Japanese translations (publication details here) and 2 Mongolian translations, see the table of all translations.

While picking over differences in 80 or so translations may sound about as interesting as watching grass grow, it's actually fascinating to see how so many people have tackled these outwardly simple sentences. Some interesting phenomena get thrown up. For instance:

All Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese translators translate the word secret with the same word (which is common to Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese) -- except three: one Taiwanese translator and two Vietnamese translators, who choose words with subtly different nuances.